Bathroom attendants - a good thing?

At Trader Vic's, London, there's always a bathroom attendant there, ready to hand you a towel or spray cologne in your face. Of course for this 'service', you're expected to tip £1 (about $1.60).

Do they have these attendants in Trader Vic's elsewhere? Does anyone actually get any benefit from having them there, or are most people like me and resent having someone staring at your back while using the urinal, then paying for the privilage?

Trader Woody

They have attendents at the Mai-Kai which doesn't bother me.
The only other places I have run into them are in strip clubs. I always figured they were perverts who just took the job so they could peek at the ladies for free.

They bug me too! I always feel uncomfortable. They have them at all the House of Blues out here but they aren't too common here on the West Coast. I was told it is an East Coast thing. I waitress at a gentlemans club, and have been to a few other clubs, and we don't have them out here.

The ladies' bathroom attendant at Bimbo's 365 (www.bimbos365.com) in San Francisco is completely hilarious... Because of the number of people in line, she would yell at the top of her lungs over and over, 'Don't pee on the seats, ladies! Don't pee on the seats!' It made for a quite surreal bathroom experience...

Mr. Smiley~
You should have an opinion about this, hmm? :)

The layout of the women's bathroom at the Emeryville Trader Vic's makes me think that they probably had an attendant at some point.

I would say that for a fancier place, the attendant could be called on for all sorts of grooming stuff. If you needed a quick shave or plucking, they likely have the supplies. But I would think this is a women's room thing more than a men's. With Florida law, it might end up as a place to go smoke in private. Who knows.

Bimbo's is the only place in SF I can think of where I've seen an attendant, and I have to say I rather like it. We're usually there for some sort of special event or "retro" show and it just feels like it belongs. A couple extra bucks for tipping for the evening doesn't bother me and they do a good service in keeping the room tidy, which is a rarity in most public venue bathrooms.

On 2003-07-11 05:35, Kailuageoff wrote:
The only other places I have run into them are in strip clubs. I always figured they were perverts who just took the job so they could peek at the ladies for free.

Um, if they're stuck in the men's room all day, it ain't the ladies they're peeking at!

I used to work at a concert venue in Chicago called the Park West, and the bathroom guy there, Bill, was the coolest dude in history. He was about 80 years old, and would always bring a boom box and a gigantic CD wallet full of classic 1940s-1960s jazz with him. I'd go into the loo just to shoot the breeze and learn about jazz from Bill. He knew, in pasron, all the greats. He'd tell me stories about hanging out with Count Basie, Bird, Armstrong... and many more.

On 2003-07-11 11:27, tikibars wrote:

Um, if they're stuck in the men's room all day, it ain't the ladies they're peeking at!

Um, good point there James.

bathroom attendants are classy, pay the tip or who knows he might just say to the next person entering "see that guy that just left, he has the smallest dick I've ever seen"

From: Oakland, CA
Posted: 2003-07-01 18:07

I got the Royal Treatment at the Mai-Kai. I fact, even the bathroom attendant said to me "buddy, the next one is on me". So a half hour later, I went into the men's room and preceded to pee on his shoes.
He yelled at me and I said "I thought you said it was on 'you' and now it is!" . Boy was I EMBARRASSED when I found out that was not what he meant!!!

----Bathroom attendents are a rather old fashioned idea. I'm glad I don't have to do that to earn a living. If anyone of you talked to the guy at the Mai-Kai you would have found out that he was a really nice guy.
But, handing a towel is not less service than the Men's bathroom attendent at Bimbo's in San Francisco-he offers use of various colognes and more.

There used to be an old guy from the PI in the can at Trader Vic's in NYC. He was nice-always smiled and brushed off my coat (and he waited until I was finished.) If I remember correctly through the fog of years and alcohol the place was a shocking, brilliant red. It must have kept him awake all night. I know it would wake me up after two scorpion bowls!

House Of Blues uses bathroom attendants in the evenings. They may be classy, but I don't like them, mainly becuase if they were truly service-oriented, they'd ask you if you wanted towels instead of automatically pulling them from a rack and handing them to me, because customer-service is just as much about not making the customer feel awkward as it is about helping them out. I can't help but think it's a guilt trip they put on you to get you to pay them along the lines of the homeless people who wash your windshield at red lights.

I pay based on the quality of the rooms. If the place is dirty or stinks, I'm not going to tip the guy no matter how many towels or mints he forces on me.

~Hanford

Some Vegas properties have attendants. I've always found it disconcerting to be handed a towel by someone I had assumed was the janitor (they're usually doing some shining and polishing while waiting to hand out towels).

The Imperial Palace's main men's room off the gaming floor has an attendant. It also has a huge selection of hair tonics and goos and some colognes spread out on the counter which looks more messy than classy, but I like it. The attendant there also does shoe shines. Last visit he noticed my dusty boots.
"Say I can shine those boots up real nice for yuh," he offered.
"I'm heading home in a few hours," I said, "I don't really need clean boots."
"Yuh don't wanna get home with dust on your boots," he countered.
"But it's Las Vegas dust," I said, "It's lucky. I want to take some of the luck home with me."
"Well I can't argue with that," he said, "No sir, I can't argue with that."

I love it...awesome...a throwback to the days of yesteryear and the classic golden age supper club, when service and quality was everything, and attention to detail was the benchmark. I tipped the Mai Kai attendant 10.00..I got a great story about Johnny Carson and the Mercury Astronauts in return! Nice guy...Kept Paco Robanne on hand, too, which is one of my favorites.

On 2003-07-14 01:23, Basement Kahuna wrote:
I got a great story about Johnny Carson and the Mercury Astronauts in return!

Share?

The Trader Vics in Beverly Hills doesn't have an attendant. There wouldn't be much room for them.

I always feel kinda weird having someone wait on me in the john. But, Bathroom attendants tend to be these really old "cool" cats that don't make a lot of money. So I tip them heavily.

Has anyone been to the Madonna Inn in NorCal? Klassy joint, you get to pee in a waterfall. Yippee!!

Buy, Sell, & Trade it...

[ Edited by: MTKahuna on 2003-07-14 11:30 ]

Trader Vics with a Tahitian Wahine attendant.
Hey, we can all fantasize a little, can't we?

SF used to be quite the cosmopolitan place in the 50s and especially the 60s. Bathrooms attendants were not uncommon in some of the more "hoity toidy" places. (I think this is how I became so pee shy.) Try the men's room at the Fairmont (Tonga Room) and it's quite nerve-racking (very small and no white noise or music). At least, that's the way it was through the 90s.

The St. Francis, the Mark, many night clubs (Bimbo's) and so on, all had them. Having them at the Mai-Kai is just one more step to taking you back to the "good old days" when everyone acted like ladies and gentlemen.

The guy at the Mai-Kai was really cool, and after chit chatting for a few, I could tell this guy had some REAL good stories to share. This is the guy that really knows what's going on behind the scenes. Next time you go to the Mai-Kai, buy this guy a drink or two (after hours) and let him talk...